June 20 2016

Yooo family and friends!!!

I hope you're enjoying the summer while i'm freezing over here in CHILE. But guess what cambios were today. Mi voy!!!Yes it's true im leaving Curanilahue. I'm a lil nervous but i know im going where God wants me :) Which is Lomas Colorada which is close to concepción.. and rumor has it that it's cuico. (rich) and it is a huge barrio... so im a little intimidated bc all of my sectors have been pueblos and the people are super humble and loving so we will see how the city life is.. a little bit of an adjustment haha. pray for me hahah. OH and my comp is from columbia how sick is that!!! She's also super new so i will be finishing her training. wohoooo so fun.

The family of 4 we have been teaching are getting baptized this Saturday!!!! I'm gonna try to ask for permission to go to the baptism bc my new area is only two hours away... Pero bueno. I'm honestly so pumped to start a new sector again but obvi will miss all our investigators and the members. im super grateful i had the opportunity to serve the people of curanilahue:'))

I don't have alot of time to write this week because i have a lot of stuff i need to do today before cambios tomorrow. I love you all write me and tell me about your lives please!!! and i will respond as fast as i can!! chauitosss

hermana nielson

May 23 2016

Sooo this week was awesome. We found some good people with huge potential so im excited to work with them. And we put fechas (dates) with one of the families i told you about last week! They are so sweet I love them so much and they said they really like church and can see the blessings from going so we were happy to hear that. if you could all pray for them that would mean A LOT :) 

We had two intercambios (exchanges) this week because my comp is a capacitadora (trainer) with the other hermana in the other companionship in curanilahue.. so hermana Talavera (from paraguay and has 2 weeks in the mission) and we will be having a lot of intercambios together haha. It's way fun though i almost feel like i have two companions. It's a little confusing though bc we find the coolest contacts together and then we have to decide which companionship gets who bc we aren't actually companions idk it's funny though. And it's fun getting to know investigators of the other hermanas.

OH YEAH do you guys remember Luis??? from my last sector? HE IS GETTING BAPTIZED i was so happy to hear!! 

well i love you all and am praying for you!!! I hope you have a wonderful week and remember how much God loves youuuu:)) 

hermana nielson

Descriptions of pics:

A selfie on a puente (bridge) bc there are a ton in curanilahue haha

A celebration bc my comp completed 1 year of her mish 

A bautismo of the son of a member who just turned 8 that we helped with :)) 

May 16 2016

Curanilahue!!! Okay so i love Curanilahue!!! For real the people here are so sweet and the members are so willing to help us. the rama here is a lot bigger than Yumbel. the church assistance is over 100  members strong and in Yumbel it was 30 (sometimes less) hahah so yeah it is a lot different for me. and it isn't a house it is a real church building. There are a ton of pine trees here and it is a little ghetto and it rains a lot but it isn't super cold so that's a plus, haha. OH and my compañera is from Peru and soooo great i love her!! I have learned so much from her already in just a week. Oh and I'm rooming with another companionship of straight latinas hahah. IM THE ONLY GRINGA. it's fine tho they are so fun and i need as much help as i can get with my spanish.

We are working with 2 families right now that have HUGE potential. i don't know them super well yet bc one of them are investigators of the hermanas in the sector before us and the other family we found yesteday. Also i forgot to mention that we are new missionaries here bc there was a white wash in the sector so we are all learning the sector. which is huge i might add. at least in comparison to my last sector haha. Pray for me lol.

Oh yeah and i forgot to mention something that happened like my second day here... There was this protest of people in the city!!!! they were throwing bombs of gas in the streets and had flags of chile hahah it was kinda scary but i think it's bc they want money from the government idk... i'll send pictures though!! sorry this is short i never have time. 

LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS write me!!!!

hermana nielson

May 9 2016

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS

So as you all know (if you read my emails) I've been in Yumbel for quite some time and today i found out im leaving!!! WOOHOO don't let this email fool you i'm going to miss the people soooooooooooooooooo much but i'm so excited at the same time bc i'm leaving my first sector finally. My new sector is Curanilahue i think that's how it's spelled lol. But it's close to Lebu if any of you are familiar with Chile haha. I heard it's a little ghetto and dangerous and poor but great. I'm sure you're really happy to hear this dad hahah. But I'm not even worried bc I work for the HEFE. (Heavenly Father) but I will let you guys know how it is next week!! Pray for meee.

This last week we were busy in los angeles and another sector helping with the rededication of a church so we didn't get to work with a lot of people. Oh and this week i also discovered that my companion has a phobia of any type of bug that flies. we were in a bus the other day and she started screaming and panicking and i freaked out (naturally) and thought there was a spider or a man about to kill us or something that would make logical sense as to why she would be screaming and frantically panicking in front of everyone on the bus. IT WAS A FLY. literally a fly. hahahah she is so funny i love her. I will miss her dearly!! Also we witnessed a cat straight up catch and eat a rat in front of our faces in the back yard of a menos activa. It was traumatizing haha. Oh and i learned how horrible some of the english teachers are here. I was helping one of our investigators with her english homework and her teacher spelled it like "yt" WITH A Y. i was appalled hahaha. 

One family we got to visit that impacted me was thee cutest family with a 9 month old baby and a menos activo and his girlfriend who isnt a member. He was talking about how much the church impacted his life growing up and he wants his son to have the same experience  The spirit was so strong and his girlfriend was so excited to learn more. and it was just so cool to see how much the gospel really does bless familes.

I love you all and wish you the bestest week. oh ps FELIZ DIA DE LA MADRE yesterday to all the moms reading this. You all are my heroes. chauuuu

HERMANA NIELSON:))

April 18 2016

¡¡¡holaaa!!!

My dearest friends and family whom i miss and love tons!! I hope you all had a great week and that your monday is wonderful.. my week well from what i remember in this moment about my week was good. it rained ALL week! Rain boots are my best friend here lol. A little adjustment from AZ haha.

Sooo we have been mainly been working with menos activos lately. And this Sunday almost every menos activo we have been working with the last few weeks came to church!!! I don't know how to express how happy that made me. I'm honestly so grateful God trusts me enough to help people remember their covenants in the church and feel the blessings of the gospel in their lives again.

We have a couple of investigators we are working with. One is a friend I've had here my whole time in Yumbel bc in his negocio (store) he has BP (blue powerade) super cheap compared to all the other negocios. Anyway i never thought to teach him bc he's always working and that's the only time i ever see him.. But one night we had a longer talk than normal that lead into him taking the restoration folder and a BOM and asking us to visit him when he's not working! woohoo! 

The other person we found is HILARIOUS. and just thee coolest person. ya know those people who have all the same beliefs/views that the church and doctrine teaches but doesn't know it yet.. yeah that's him.oh my and the way we found him is not a coincidence! okay here's the story. So my comp and i were walking to our next apt at about 8:30 at night. and i got the weirdest feeling that we shouldn't go to our next apt. so w/o saying anything to my comp i asked her how she felt and she said she felt weird/wrong.. SO in the cold/dark w/ only an hour left of working and not knowing where to go or exactly why we cancelled our last apt we prayed about where God wanted us to go and so we kept walking and found luis who we actually saw the week before and gave a BOM and never got his address or number or anything and were kinda bummed.. and turns out he is pretty interested and has been reading in the book of mormon. twas pretty awesome to feel God's guidance that night. 

What i've learned the most in the mission is to always trust God and his will. I love you all and am so grateful for you all. have a great week friends and family!!!! 

Con mucho amor,

hermana nielson :))

April 4 2016

Hola familia y amigos

I apologize for how long it's been since i've sent a group email out to everyone haha.  I've been a little stressed and haven't had any time. However you all are always in my prayers and im so grateful for all of you and your support. For real i couldn't do it without you!! Basically im never leaving Yumbel because i love the people too much sorry family. No but really I'm so blessed to be able to to be around the people here.

SO guess what!! I just finished my training and sent my mom home (Hermana Jolley) for all of my single guy friends reading this hehe ;) and now im training!!!! my "hija" (the missionary i'm training) is from CHILE! she is the cutest human to ever exist and i love her so much!! she is soo great im so grateful to be able to train her. People have even said i'm starting to get a Chilena accent in my spanish... well one person but still i was shocked.i'll take anything other than a gringa accent hahah. I'm super happy because she has been helping me a ton with my spanish and let me tell ya i need it!! 

We have been working with two families and they are so great. i sent pictures of one and we found another that is very interested and understands everything!! all we need is that people act on their faith and come to church :) please pray for themmm. We are going to try to find a lot of new people this week.

I don't have a lot of time so i have to go but please email me if you need ANYTHING. well first pray to God because he can do more for you than i ever could. but i miss you all and love hearing from you:) oh also i hope you all enjoyed conference!! i got to watch one session in english so that was cool. Uchdorf's was my favorite. To be honest i'm pretty sure this was my first time seeing every single talk both saturday and sunday HAHA. I'm the worst. But i totally regret it because they literally receive revelation from God and is what we need to hear in this time. so if you haven't already go watch ALL of conference. i promise you will learn something God wants you to know. OKAY love you all chow!!

hermana nielson

February 25 2016

Dear family and  friends,

This last week we found this super awesome family who we met in their empanada shop. A mom named Alejandra and a daughter named Javiera who is 17 years old. When we were teaching them lesson 1 about the restoration, (wow it was really weird spelling that word in english) they said they didn't want to feel "lost" and javiera said she doesn't feel like the catholic church is true. And when we explained the apostasy it totally clicked for both of them!! They were like OHHHH. hahah It was great and they always are so nice and give us food. But anyway we didn't get them to church because they left for vacation Sunday but get back this Friday so we will get them there this Sunday!! Pray for them please. It's really hard getting investigators to church here :( we are still working with Fredy and still need him to get to church but he's been working in Concepcion. So yeah this week we are going to do everything in our power to get them to church!! Oh and we are teaching Coni who is 13 years old!! Like my baby sis :) But she is a lot taller haha and very mature. Her parents aren't members but her cousins and grandma are (menos activos) and she's taken all the missionary lessons throughout her life ever since she was 8 but has never received the answer to get baptized. So pray for her to receive an answer this week!! :)

Something nasty is apparently people eat HORSE meat here and you can like buy it packaged like jerkey or something. And my Brazilian roommate bought it and her comp and my comp was eating it and i was freaking out bc that is NASTY.  I honestly was appalled. Lol too far for me. Also I have a picture of me wearing something that will probably make you laugh so I will send that to you right now. Let's just say you will see that I've truly consecrated myself in the work by what I now wear. 

Ahh I'm so excited for Ash!!! i can only imagine how Coco is feeling lol. But, oh yeah, last week I was with a super sweet family from more southern Chile who converted not too long ago. They were here in Yumbel for vacation and so I got to know them pretty well and the guy looks like the chileno version of Trent to me haha. Do you agree? But they are so nice and their kids are the most well behaved kids I've ever met for real!! They're gone now, but i think they want to move back here next year. And in the other picture the other two girls are my roommates. One is from Utah and just started her training and the other one is from Brazil. They are so great ! I love them and it's a lot easier to do the work here with them. 

I love you tons!  I hope you have a great week. I am always praying for you guys :))

Hermana Nielson 

February 1 2016

HELLO family and friends,

Sorry I really suck at writing every week but I will try to work on it haha. This week (and last week) was super good. We have been contacting a lot and trying to find new investigators which has been fun. But really hot bc it's like over 100 degrees here.. You'd think I wouldn't mind it that much because I lived in az before right. But here's the catch there is no AC!!! haha it's fine though because I'm getting my tan on. Really though some people have even thought that I was chilena!! Then they heard me try to speak spanish and were like wait what lol. 

Okay so I don't have a lot of time to write so I'll give you a few points of my week. I got chased by the most vicious pato to ever live. (pato is the spanish word for duck). and I cracked walnuts for a couple hours last week for service so that was cool. I even sent you guys a pic of me cracking one.. and I accomplished one of my life goals. The members in my rama who speak english have a sheep named SUZY!!! So obviously, I had to take a pic with her. Take a pic with a sheep named after me in chile. Wow what an experience my friends.

 On a serious note that was super cool.. We went to go visit a recent convert yesterday which was totally unplanned.. and when we were there he told us he had prayed that we would come visit him right before and was going through some hard times. That was definitely a testimony builder. I love realizing there's always a place God wants us to be.

I love you all so much and am so thankful for you guys. Hope you have an amazing week!! I'm always praying for you all:))

Oh ps that other pic of me with my comp and that model woman in the middle of us who is literally turning 80. She is one of my fav people here and is a member! In case you were wondering lol.

January 18 2016

Hola amigos y familia!!

Okay so I'm sorry I haven't sent a letter out to everyone in a couple weeks but last week I was super sick with some chilean flu which is 10 times worse than the ones in america lol. I actually don't know what it was but I think it was the flu. I'm all good now though! Anyway I have LOTS to tell you guys but I'll try to keep it short bc I know you guys aren't tryna read a novel rn haha.

First of all.. I had my first heart break on the mission last week. when I say heart break I mean literally my heart shattered into a million pieces. One of my inverstigators was getting ready for baptism and he is the cutest abuelito. One of his legs is longer than the other so he wears this boot to help him walk and he is so adorable. His faith was so strong then suddenly out of nowhere he tells us he is catholic and no longer wants lessons from us. I didn't now how sad it would make me.. I may or may not have shed a lot of tears after but it's okay maybe he will come around! You never know the seeds you plant right.. At least that's what every missionary is telling me here haha.

BUT we found another investigator who is the sweetest lady and honestly feels like a mom to me.  I know that sounds weird .. But she definitely has the light of Christ and is super receptive. Pray for her please everyone!!! :) her name is maria. And please pray for our other investigator Juan whom I love dearly.

So the most embarrassing and funny thing happened and I feel obligated to tell you the story. So I'm at a members house and he has the cutest special needs brother who is around 16 years old.. he brings the happiest spirit and I love him. Anyway so I go to the bathroom (don't worry I didn't sit down to go or anything yet haha) and miguel (his special needs brother) comes in and literally rips his pants off and starts doing his business in front of me!! HAHA I was like "hola miguel" hahah and  the worst part is that I was struggling so badly to open the door.. I so yeah his brother and my comp thought my face was hilarious when I walked out haha I can only imagine what  looked like bc I was freaking out lol.

Oh and I had dinner with coolest members last night who SPEAK ENGLISH!! The guy served a mission in idaho and his wife is an english teacher and lived in the states for 2 years. It was so cool to communicate completely with the members and fully express myself haha. Not gonna lie I literally feel like I have a disability when I try to speak spanish sometimes bc I can't fully express myself. But I'm learning more and more everyday so I know I'll get there eventually.

Anyway sorry this ended up being a novel haha. And I'm sorry if I don't write back right away I'm still learning how to manage my time into an hour haha. I love you all SO much and am praying for you all. Always remember how much God loves you. :)) wow I really am turning into such a missionary haha.I hope you all have an amazing week!!  I promise I'll send lots of pictures next week and really if I haven't written you yet I will asap and am thinking of you!! 

con mucho amor 

hermana nielson

December 28 2015

Hola friends and family whom I love dearly,

I hope you all had a super wonderful CHRISTMAS!:) Mine was SO good!!! The president over Yumbel and his family had us over for noche bueno (christmas eve) they had thee best meal ever lemme tell ya. turkey and mashed potatoes and everything was just BOMB. And Christmas was great bc got to chat with the fam!! I didn't even cry. lol jk I cried a lot. but it was still great.

Okay guys so I'm actually starting to keep up with the convos and understanding a lot more!! I still can't speak very well but it's fine lol. I love the people so much I just wanna be able to communicate exactly what I want with them. It's hard but I know Heavenly Father knows what he's doing.

My fav pick up line this week: we were walking to our bus and a guy says "convert me" lol it was so funny yet slightly creepy... We get lots of pick up lines here in Chile but i don't understand them a lot of the time or hear them until my comp tells me... "that guy just hit on you don't say gracias" hahahaha. I definitely understood that pick up line though lol.

Oh and another thing that happened is I woke up at 1 am and hear a door open (in my dream I later found out) and saw flashing lights... and guys I was convinced my life was about to end. So naturally I jumped straight from my bed--not even touching the floor.. are you impressed bc you should be. Anyway, so I was like "hermana someone is in our house!!!" and may or may not have been on the verge of tears.. long story short there ended up not being anyone in our house lol. the things my poor comp deals with..

I wish I could tell you about all the super amazing people I meet everyday here but I don't have time. If you guys could keep me and the people of Yumbel in your prayers that would mean A LOT to me!! I love you all and love hearing from you! Have the best week ever and HAPPY NEW YEAR 

hermana nielson

December 21 2015

HOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS

yes it's true I am now in CHILE!! My first area is Yumbel. It's so beautiful!!! and the people are so great I love them so much. It's frustrating not being able to communicate with them the way I want to.. They think I'm some dumb gringa who doesn't know spanish which is partly true lol. They make fun of me and think I don't understand what they're saying but guys I DOOO. haha when i learn spanish I can't wait to give them so much sass right back to them lol.

So yeah pray for hermana nielson to be able to pick up on the language bc I'm struggling. They talk SO fast here! Everyone's like "don't worry about the language, it comes with time" yeah not possible I am definitely worrying and am confused 90 percent of the time haha. HOWEVER I always feel the spirit and God's love for me and the people we teach. Love is it's own language amirite. hahah but really it's only been a week so I still have hope.

also there are perros EVERYWHERE and apparently it's common to get bitten here so you could say I'm slightly terrififed. and you have to get 5 rabies shots if you get bitten so I freak out everytime a dog comes near me.. my poor comp lol. speaking of!! she is super nice and patient. The Lord definitely loves me bc she is the best trainer ever! Her name is hermana Jolley and is gringa as well :-) 

I love and miss you all SO MUCH!! oh ps FELIZ NAVIDAD wishing you all the best christmas :) the savior is truly the greatest gift any of us have ever recieved. I'm so grateful for all the love and support I get here. MUCHO AMOR

hermana nielson

December 3 2015

hi friends and family whom I love so dearly!!!

I hope you all had a great week!! I had a pretty good week here at the CCM and can't believe I'm leaving for Chile in T minus TWELVE DAYS people!!! I'm so excited but also terrified lol. The only thing I'm struggling with is the language.. I was having a break down the other day and a teacher basically told me the language I take from the CCM is super small compared to what I'm going to be learning in Chile so not to worry anyway... Yeah I didn't know whether to feel comforted or scared from that bit of information. 

Not much has happened this week tbh!! I taught this super sweet lady at TRC yesterday night and she told me a lot about Chile and how weird their accents are and how the food is not spicy enough lol. I really like TRC because we get to teach real people and we aren't teaching our teachers and feeling evaluated for everything we are saying.. Which is what it will be like out in the field so that makes me so much more excited!!

Another thing I learn everyday out here is that this mission is not about/for me.. This mission is about the people Heavenly Father has prepared for me to bring unto Christ and about serving him!! It's really easy to get caught up in worrying about yourself out here and being concerned about the language and what you have to do instead of focusing on what truly matters which is the people you are going to teach and putting your faith in the Lord that he will help you bc let's be real here I could never do this by myself. Remember God wants you to turn outward to others and the natural man wants you to turn inward towards yourself. aka don't be selfish!!! that is my inspirational message for you this week.

well I love you all and hope you all are doing awesome!!! miss you all tons!

hermana nielson

November 26 2015

AMIGOS Y FAMILIA felíz dia de Acción de Gracias!!!!! ( happy thanksgiving)

how are my fav peeps doing?! I hope you all are having the bestest Thanksgiving ever and eating lots of pie for me. I'm so grateful for all of you. FOR REALZ I'm so blessed to know each and every one of you. 

So this week went by SO fast and I'd say it was a good week. I'm learning so much and I love my district dearly. they are the best!! We got to do TRC this week which is where you work with real people who are mostly converts but they are the sweetest people EVER!! I love the latino people. Even though my spanish isn't the best they try so hard to understand and are so patient. ahh i just feel so blessed to be able to serve them. 

so last night at 11:30 which is an hour past bedtime/curfew a super loud alarm starts going off in my casa and i guess it was the carbon monoxide alarm and i freaked out because i thought i was going to die but it ended up just having low batteries so it was fine... people fixed it for us haha.. but we had to wait outside for like an hour and we were so tired and cold.

Okay so this next story may contain mature content so read with discretion lol. So me and my companera were teaching this elder in our district the other day... He was trying to respond to one of the questions we asked him by saying "i feel warm in my heart" but he used the wrong word in context and ended up saying "i feel horny in my heart" in spanish... me and hermana lange were dying laughing and the teacher literally just walked up to the elder and said "that means horny elder" hahaha it was the funniest moment ever. AND ironically the elders name is elder horne HAHA. Too funny not to share sorry it may not be a very missionary appropriate story.

I wasn't kidding when i said the Latino people are the sweetest people ever bc they literally had a huge Thanksgiving lunch for us with turkey and apple pie and ice cream and ugh it was so great lemme tell you. I LOVE them!!! They even had red white & blue table cloths on the tables it was so cute. Also SHOUTOUT to my super amazing family who sent me a thanksgiving package today AND krispy kremes last week. SO BLESSED. and another shoutout to my dearest pal viva valdez who sent me a letter using missionarypresent.com

 

.. it made my day!! I love you all so much and love hearing from you so pretty please feel free to send letters/email me bc i would love to stay in touch. I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU ALL and hope you have a great rest of your day. MUCHO AMOR

hermana nielson

Suzy's First Letter

HOLA AMIGOS Y FAMILIA,

Wow I miss you all so much and so much has happened this week but I don´t have a lot of time so sorry if this email is all over the place. 

The food is actually pretty good and they have BLUE POWERADE!! I buy one everyday haha. The Spirit is SO strong here and it makes me so happy!!! My companion is from Colorado Springs Colorado and is hilarious and has the most powerful testimony. For realz she is thee best and I love her mucho.. Her name is Hermana Lange and she is going to the same mission as me :) we both know very little spanish so it has been pretty difficult teaching our first investigator.. funny story actually lol... so we are teaching our second lesson and my comp and I were trying to ask him what he thought and felt about the scripture we had him read and I just started saying cabeza y su corazon (head and heart)!!!!! and pointing to my head and heart and so was my comp and it was so funny because our investigator was so confused and we probably looked like crazy white people.. eventually he figured out what I was trying to say though. And let me add we had only been in the ccm for 2 days at that point so our spanish was very limited lol. We play volleyball during gym time and my comp and I both played in high school so not to brag or anything but we pretty much wreck everyone on the court. POWER COMPANIONS. 

My district is amazing and we are all already super close and I love them all so much. They have the most incredible testimonies and i honestly don´t think i´ve cried as much as I have here in the ccm than I have in my entire life lol. Mostly happy crying so esta bien. (it´s all good) haha are you guys proud of my spanish or what!!? 

I am really happy here and LOVE hearing from you all please feel free to write me anytime. Miss you all tons and wish I had more time to write funny/inspirational stories that happen on the daily here. MUCHO AMOR FAM I´m so blessed to have you all in my life and am constantly praying for you all.

Hermana Nielson